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The History of Chocolate

Chocolate is one of the oldest treats enjoyed by many people. By a show of hands, how many people love chocolate? I have loved chocolate ever since I was a little girl. I have enjoyed the different tastes, textures, and styles of it. Chocolate has been one of the oldest treats enjoyed by many people. I want to share with you the history of chocolate, types of chocolate, and some benefits from eating chocolate. Let’s start with the History of Chocolate!

Chocolate's history started over 2,000 years ago. It began in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America from the seed of the cacao tree. This small tree grows best in the tropical atmosphere because it receives the best amount of rain, shade, humidity, wind, and nutrients. According to Susan J. Terrio, the author of Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate, the first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink. This was the very first way that chocolate was consumed. When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they brought the cacao seeds back home to Spain. 1. The chocolate drink was very popular in Spain. It then spread to Europe where new technologies and innovations changed the texture and taste of chocolate.2. By the mid-1700s, the blossoming Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of innovations that changed the future of chocolate.

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...The History of Chocolate
Do you like chocolate? Who doesn’t like chocolate? Chocolate is a favorite food of many people, but only few people know about the history of chocolate. That is why I am going to ask you to explore the history of chocolate by reading this essay.
The history of chocolate begins with a plant whose scientific name is theobroma cacao which means “food of the gods”. According to the historians, the Mayan in Central America is the first who learned to plant the cacao plants around 2.000 years ago. The Maya took the cacao trees from the rainforests and plant them around home. They cooked the cacao seeds then crushed them into a soft paste. They mixed the paste with water and flavorful spices to make an unsweetened chocolate drink.
Cacao and chocolate were an important part of Maya culture. There are many images of cacao plants found on Maya buildings and art objects. Royal families drank chocolate at ceremonies. Even poor families of Mayan could enjoy the chocolate drink once in a while. Historians tell us that cacao seeds also used in marriage ceremonies as the sign of the union between a husband and wife.
The Aztec culture in Mexico also valued chocolate. Unfortunately, cacao plants could not grow in the land where the Aztec...

...The History of Chocolate
The first recorded evidence of chocolate as a food product goes back to Pre-Columbian Mexico. The Mayans and Aztecs were known to make a drink called "Xocoatll from the beans of the cocoa tree. In 1528, the conquering Spaniards returned to Spain with chocolate still consumed as a beverage. A similar chocolate drink was brought to a royal wedding in France in 1615, and England welcomed chocolate in 1662. To this point "chocolate" as we spell it today, had been spelled variously as "chocalatall, "jocolatte", "jacolatte", and "chockelet.11
In 1847, Fry & Sons in England introduced the first "eating chocolate," but did not attract much attention due to its bitter taste. In 1874, Daniel Peter, a famed Swiss chocolateer, experimented with various mixtures in an effort to balance chocolates rough flavor, and eventually stumbled upon that abundant product -- milk. This changed everything and chocolate's acceptance after that was quick and enthusiastic.
GROWING COCOA BEANS
Cocoa beans are usually grown on small plantations in suitable land areas 20 degrees north or south of the Equator. One mature cocoa tree can be expected to yield about five pounds of chocolate per year. These are planted in the shade of larger trees such as bananas or mangos, about 1000 trees per hectare (2,471...

...-Chocolate is one of the oldest treats enjoyed by many people.
I have loved chocolate ever since I was a little girl. I have enjoyed the different tastes, textures, and styles of it.
I want to share with you the history of chocolate, types of chocolate, and some benefits from eating chocolate.
Chocolate's history started over 2,000 years ago. It began in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America from the seed of the cacao tree. This small tree grows best in the tropical atmosphere because it receives the best amount of rain, shade, humidity, wind, and nutrients.
A. According to Susan J. Terrio, the author of Crafting the Culture and History of French Chocolate, the first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink. This was the very first way that chocolate was consumed
Chocolate played a special role in both Mayan and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cocoa beans as offerings to the gods and served cocoa drinks during sacred ceremonies. All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cocoa beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a "tribute".[2]
The Europeans...

...﻿The History Of Chocolate
A Chocolate Timeline: Follow One Of Man’s Favorite Foods
Confectionery history has produced a record of at least 4000 years during the time Egyptians captured papyrus treats. Confections of sugar were being sold in 1566 B.C. that were sweetened with sugar or even honey. At that time chocolate did not appear on the scene until the ancient time of Aztec and Maya cultures; they discovered cacao plant. It is presumed to have originated in Orinoco and Amazon basin. Aztec’s referred beverage from the cocoa as Xocolatl, where the Spanish found it difficult in pronunciation and they referred to as regarded chocolate
The Aztec’s regarded chocolate as an aphrodisiac and their Emperor, Montezuma reputedly drank it fifty times a day from a golden goblet and is quoted as saying of Xocolatl: “The divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food”
In fact, the Aztec’s prized Xocolatl well above Gold and Silver so much so, that when Montezuma was defeated by Cortez in 1519 and the victorious ‘conquistadors’ searched his palace for the Aztec treasury expecting to find Gold & Silver, all they found were huge quantities of cocoa beans. The Aztec Treasury consisted, not of precious metals, but Cocoa Beans.
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...All chocolate starts with a seed called a cocoa bean that is grown on a small tree. Many countries in Central and South America produce cocoa beans. The history of chocolate starts in Latin America, where the cocoa bean was first discovered about 2,000 years ago on a tropical tree. The first people recognized to have used these beans to make any kind of chocolate were the Maya’s. They called it the kakawa bean, which is where the origin of the world chocolate began. They most often used the bean to make a spicy, foamy drink. Later, the Aztecs discovered the cocoa bean. Eventually this was introduced in Europe after the Spaniards came to Central America.
When the Spaniards began experimenting with the bean, they began to add other spices to it, such as cinnamon and sugar, to give the chocolate a sweeter taste. Soon, the rest of Europe started drinking it and it became a popular drink that only the rich could afford. In the 1600’s the first chocolate house was opened and this flavor was able to reach the mouths of many other people. In the early 1800’s, solid chocolate was created. It became more affordable to everyone and throughout time more recipes were experimented with, creating many different types of chocolate.
There are many different types of chocolate such as White, Dark (bittersweet), Milk, Semi-Sweet and even Baking...

...﻿According to research done by John Q. Tullius, Nine out of ten people love chocolate, and the tenth person is almost always lying. Let's face it: chocolate is one of the biggest pleasures of our lives! Delicious, soft, incredibly gratifying and for these reasons it's well known and loved all around the world and capable of inspiring books and films like "Chocolate Wars"or "Willy Wonka`s Chocolate Factory".
The story of chocolate, as far back as we know it, begins with the discovery of America. Until 1492, the Old World knew nothing at all about the delicious and stimulating flavor that was to become the favorite of millions.
The Court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella got its first look at the principal ingredient of chocolate when Columbus returned in triumph from America and laid before the Spanish throne a treasure trove of many strange and wonderful things. Among these were a few dark brown beans that looked like almonds and seemed most unpromising. There were cocoa beans, today's source of all our chocolate and cocoa.
The King and Queen never dreamed how important cocoa beans could be, and it remained for Hernando Cortez, the great Spanish explorer, to grasp the commercial possibilities of the New World offerings.
During his conquest of Mexico, Cortez found the Aztec Indians using cocoa beans in the preparation of the royal drink of the realm, "chocolatl", meaning...

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250AD – 1000AD
The earliest record of chocolate consumption dates from the Classic period of the Ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America. The Maya and their ancestors made chocolate into a spicy drink (cacao paste mixed with chili peppers, vanilla and other ingredients) that they used in ceremonies.
14th – 16th century
The Aztec, between the 14th and 16th centuries, were among those who had to trade for cacao and often required that citizens and conquered peoples pay their tribute in cacao seeds—a form of Aztec money. Like the earlier Maya, the Aztecs also consumed their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices, and sometimes with honey (sugar was unavailable to them).
1502
Columbus captured a flotilla of dugout canoes off the coast of Mexico the contents included what he thought to be Almonds but they were in fact cocoa beans, he was unaware of their value and did not take any of them with him.
1517 - 1519
It’s during this period that the chocolate became sweetened, using cane sugar and drank hot instead of cold. Cortes and his men also realised that cocoa bean could be used as a way to pay workers.
1519
The Aztecs and their king, Montezuma, thought Hernan Cortez the Spanish conquistador and his men were gods, and offered them cocoa. He found it spicy and bitter and was unimpressed.
1534
The Jesuits were formed, a militant army of the church. They did lots of work with the Colonies and became...